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Battle of Outreau
The Battle of Outreau occurred in 1557 during the Italian War of 1551-59 when an English army from Calais ambushed and destroyed a force of six French companies led by Sebastian de Poitiers before they could sail to Scotland to assist the Scots against an English invasion. Background In 1557, Queen Mary I of England sent a portion of England's army to invade the Scottish border regions, hoping to survey Scotland's weaknesses. The English met no resistance as they invaded the country, forcing local farmers to provide them with eggs and other rations. Mary, Queen of Scots, who was at the French court in Paris awaiting her marriage to King Henry II of France's crown prince Francis, asked that France honor the Auld Alliance by sending men to assist the Scots in repulsing the English invasion. Mary initially asked for eight companies of troops to reinforce the numerically-inferior Scots, but King Henry II was slow to respond, as he worried that France had larger borders, and that it had to worry about wars with England, Spain, and hundreds of German and Italian principalities as part of the Italian War of 1551-59. Mary was thus secretly forced to seek the aid of the Portuguese prince Thomas, Lord of Palmela, who was in the process of negotiating the purchase of timber from France to help build Portuguese naval ships for their growing navy and their New World discovery efforts. She promised Thomas that Scotland would provide a larger amount of timber in exchange for military assistance, and Thomas promised to send his retinue of several companies of Portuguese troops if Mary would marry him instead of Francis. Mary considered the offer, but, meanwhile, Francis had managed to convince his father to send aid after asking him several times; Henry agreed that Francis would shoulder the responsibility whether the outcome was victory or defeat. Battle King Henry had Francis send the kingdom's fastest rider - his older illegitimate half-brother Sebastian de Poitiers - to send word to the six French captains to mobilize their companies and embark on ships at Outreau, from which they would sail for Scotland. The French troops were forced to bypass the English-held port city of Calais, which housed a large garrison. Thomas, having discovered Mary's return to good graces with Francis, determined that she had rejected his offer of marriage, and he thus decided to warn the English about the French army's movements. The English rode out from Calais ambushed the French at Outreau, and Sebastian was gravely injured in the ensuing massacre; the French were unable to reach their ships in time. The defeat at Outreau prevented France from sending military aid to Scotland. Aftermath The English army's ambush and destruction of the French army at Outreau led to Queen Catherine de Medici suspecting that a person loyal to the English had ridden to Calais and warned the English of the French army's plans. The English diplomat Simon Westbrook was immediately blamed and arrested, and he was sentenced to be beheaded for espionage. Francis then encouraged Mary to take up Thomas' offer for the sake of Scotland, and Thomas decided to send his Portugese troops to assist Scotland after Mary accepted his offer. However, Prince Francis, Sebastian, and Mary suspected that Thomas had the most to gain from warning the English, and Thomas and Sebastian confronted Thomas in a poppy field before he could kill his valet and whipping boy Miguel, who hated his lord enough to be willing to testify to his guilt. The fight which ensued resulted in Francis slaying Thomas, and Miguel confirmed Thomas' guilt; the King of Portugal agreed to cover up his death as an "accident" to save the country's reputation. Westbrook was then handsomely compensated for his imprisonment and was sent to serve as the new English envoy to Portugal; meanwhile, Thomas' death led to the king's infant nephew Sebastian of Portugal becoming his new heir. Category:Italian Wars Category:Battles